Manhunt on for fugitive Dorner

>>> we have breaking news on former 34ri6r christopher dorner. there's a flurry of activity related to his search in the vicinity of big bear , california . nbc's john yang is in burbank with more. john, what can you tell us?

>> reporter: martin, this is all in big bear lake . this is where the search has been focused, where dorner's truck was found on thursday burned out. what we do know, there's a lot of sort of fluid activity. what we do know is that there appears to have been at least two people who have been tied up in a house. it's believed that dorner was holed up there for a while. he then took off in one of the vehicles belonging to that house. there was a chase on a highway outside big bear lake . we understand that there may have been an accident. the car may have slammed into a tree and that dorner, we understand, this is all from radio scanner traffic, then ran into the woods . so the search is ongoing. this is the first time there has been this strong evidence of a sighting of dorner since thursday, since his truck was found burning outside big bear lake . it had weapons in it. it had camping equipment inside, and an intense search has been going on. big bear lake a resort area east of los angeles in the san bernardino mountains . a lot of cabins, a lot of second homes, a lot of them empty, and they have been going door to door searching since last week, since thursday, but now we are getting reports hf some sort of activity, apparently two people tied up and now a chase, a car chase on a highway outside of san bernardino -- or outside big bear lake in san bernardino county . we are still trying to get more details, martin. that's about all we know right now.

>> john, this comes at a point and coincides with both a reward being offered for his capture and also a widespread advertising campaign using public billboards on highways.

>> that's exactly right. they announced yesterday a reward of $1 million, the biggest ever offered by the lapd being chipped in from local governments , from local law enforcement agencies, local companies, even the los angeles dodgers chipping in money. they have been -- the trail seemed to have gone cold. this is, as they say, the first time we've had any solid evidence of where he might be since that truck was found on thursday. it also comes a day after the riverside county district attorney's office, which is where he killed one police officer and fired on another, filed murder charges against him and also murder charges involving a peace officer which carries the death penalty. that also allowed them to get a warrant, a federal warrant, so that no matter where he was found, if he had left california and gone elsewhere, they could have been able to try to extradite him and bring him back to california , but it now appears that he is still in the area in san bernardino county . martin?

>> john yang with the very latest. thanks so much, john,